Many electronic devices now exist that include a display for displaying a plurality of items allowing the user to browse and peruse the plurality of items. For example, electronic devices include portable apparatus such as mobile terminals, personal digital assistants, satellite navigation systems, portable media players such as iPods® etc. Other electronic devices include personal computers, laptops, televisions, any device that includes an audio/video content library, and any device that includes, for example, a graphical user interface.
Due to the increasing popularity and demand for these devices, there is an increased desire for an easy to use display for browsing items. Most devices use ‘panel’ browsers for representing and displaying items. The browsers provide a hierarchical structure for browsing items in which a first list of items is displayed on the display and, upon selection of an item from the first list, a second list of items is displayed on the display in place of the first list. An example of such a system is described in US Patent Application No. 2008/0059911. For example, a first menu consisting of a list of artists is displayed on the display and, upon selection of one of the artists, a second menu consisting of a list of albums by the selected artist is displayed on the display in place of the list of artists. Further, upon selection of one of the albums from the list, a third menu consisting of a list of songs on the selected album is displayed in place of the list of albums. This means that each subsequent level of the display is filtered according to the selection made on the upper level.
The problem associated with the existing browsers for displaying is that they force a sequential means of access from the top of the hierarchy (artist in the example) traversing down through the nodes until reaching the intended item (a song in the example). This can be time consuming and confusing for a user since the user is required to browse all items in each menu in order to reach the intended item. Further, if once the user has reached the intended item, the user wishes to select a different item from the first menu, the user is required to navigate back through each of the menus in order to return to the first.